According to the company, its Accelerated Flash storage array comes in a custom-designed, rack-optimized form factor with a newly developed flash memory controller that allows the module to deliver higher performance, lower cost per bit and greater capacity compared to conventional solid-state drives (SSDs).

The module is designed to fit into an 8U chassis and can scale from 6.4 TB up to 76.8 TB capacity. A VSP can house up to four flash storage modules, which takes the technology beyond 300 TB of storage per system. According to HDS, its Accelerated Flash storage features four times better performance, "improved" power and space, and up to 46 percent lower cost per bit than a common 400 GB MLC SSD.

The technology is fully compatible with the company's dynamic tiering to enable the system to automatically optimize data processing by making the most active data available on the flash array storage and moving less-active data on cheaper and lower performance disks.

The VSP can be equipped with either 200 GB or 400 GB SSDs and supports a total of 2,048 drives. When equipped with 3.5-inch HDDs, the capacity is 1,280 drives. The maximum raw capacity of the storage server when equipped with 3.5-inch HDDs is 2,521.1 TB.

Wolfgang GruenerWolfgang Gruener is a contributor to Tom's IT Pro. He is currently principal analyst at Ndicio Research, a market analysis firm that focuses on cloud computing and disruptive technologies, and maintains the conceivablytech.com blog. An 18-year veteran in IT journalism and market research, he previously published TG Daily and was managing editor of Tom's Hardware news, which he grew from a link collection in the early 2000s into one of the most comprehensive and trusted technology news sources.